Tuesday, September 11, 2018

School Talk : Expensive Library Usage In Miscellaneous Fees

"A library is an institution that falls under business category which is likely to have more expense than gain profit."

Understanding the Role of Libraries

Guaranteeing Access to Knowledge: The Role of Libraries

August 2012

By Ben White, Head of Intellectual Property, British Library

As gateways to knowledge and culture, libraries play a fundamental role in society. The resources and services they offer create opportunities for learning, support literacy and education, and help shape the new ideas and perspectives that are central to a creative and innovative society. They also help ensure an authentic record of knowledge created and accumulated by past generations. In a world without libraries, it would be difficult to advance research and human knowledge or preserve the world’s cumulative knowledge and heritage for future generations.

Why do we need money to run the Library?

Developing the Library Budget

by Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction - Public Library Development, March 2012

The library budget is a tool for turning library dreams into reality. The budget determines the services that will be offered by your library and the resources devoted to each library program. A carefully developed budget will ensure that available funds are effectively utilized to realize your library’s service objectives.

The board may need to make budget changes if the funding needed to balance the budget is not secured. Budget changes may also be required during the budget year if, for example, certain expenditures are higher than expected, or costs are lower than expected.

Desirable budget characteristics

There are four practical characteristics that your budget document should include.

Clarity: The budget presentation should be clear enough so every board member, every employee, and every municipal governing body member can understand what is being represented.

Accuracy: Budget documentation must support the validity of budget figures, and figures must be transcribed and reported carefully, without variation from the documentation.

Consistency: Budget presentations should retain the same format from period to period so that comparisons can be easily made. All budgets are comparative devices, used to show how what is being done now compares with what happened in the past and what is projected to happen in the future.

Comprehensiveness: Budget reports should include as complete a picture of fiscal activities as is possible. The only way to know the true cost of the library operation is to be certain that all revenue and expenditure categories are included within the budget.

How big is the expected Library Budget?

What Are the Major College Budgets?

The funds that pay for the day-to-day operations of the college (academic programs, student services, library, media support, computing & science labs, plant maintenance and administration) are called the Operating Budget ($113.9 million). Revenues come from state appropriations (39%) and from student tuition and fee collections (61%).

The Evergreen State College Office of Operational Planning and Budget April 14, 2015

At the 1,200 libraries surveyed, budgets ranged from $315,000 to $3.15 million. The size of the budget varied not only by library type (public, academic, or special) but by whether the library was a single, independent unit or part of a larger system (and whether it was a branch or the main library in the larger system).

Not according to The Library of Congress,

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School library budget

It's essential that you know how much money you've spent and how much you still have to spend. Funds allocated to the library but not spent within the budget time frame may be unavailable once returned to the school’s general accounts. This may make it hard to justify requests for funding in following years.

You may decide to spread spending across each term to ensure there is a flow of new materials throughout the year. Talk to teachers to find out if you’ll need to schedule spending at different times. For example, you might plan to have materials on hand to coincide with topic or curriculum needs.

Keeping records

You may find it useful to use a spreadsheet for recording expenditure against your budget. Maintain a separate sheet for all budget categories or accounts, such as subscriptions and printing — not just items added to your collection.